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Thursday, 10 August 2017

This week's prompt photograph from Sepia Saturday shows a portrait of an earnest young man, finger on chin, sitting on a chair, but facing backwards.I knew immediately which image I would choose from my family collection.

My Great Uncle George (the youngest of my grandfather's seven brothers), is looking very studious, here, hand on chin, seated sideways on a large solid oak chair - so a good match in many ways to the prompt.

George, born 1894, son of James Danson and Maria Rawclliffe of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, worked on W. H. Smith bookstalls at local railway stations. He was killed whilst serving as a stretcher bearer on the Somme in 1916, a week after his 22nd birthday. I have written bout him a number of times on my blog - take a look at A Stretch Bearer's Tale

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An ornate scrolled back to this chair for a portrait of my husband's uncle - Matthew Iley White, looking determined in his uniform of the Durham Light Infantry.

Photograph taken by T. W. H. Liddle, Photographer, South Shields.

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A heavily scrolled chair with an ornate back for seated Joseph Prince Oldham (1855-1917) with his granddaughter Elsie Oldham (1906-1989) and grandson Joseph Butler who was born 1918.

Elsie
Oldham and my mother, Kathleen Danson, were second cousins, and I am
grateful for Elsie's son, Stuart for the use of the photographs of his extended family.

Joseph Price Oldham became a carter and coal merchant
in Blackpool, Lancashire, in a house with stables, opposite the North
Station. His son John William Oldham carried on the business, until it fell to Elsie.

In the 1920's, Elsie also ran a hairdresser's from the family home, giving her name a French twist as "Elise".

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A charming photograph of Joseph Prince Oldham (the grandfather above)

born 1855, as a small boy.

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A large medieval style chair for Elsie Oldham here - it makes another appearance below.

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Sitting on a regal looking chair, an older Elsie Oldham with her cousin

Joseph Butler standing behind her - presumably in clean boots!

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Is this the same chair? A serious looking Sarah Alice Butler, nee Oldham with her son Joseph Butler, - the little boy above, born 1918 and named

after his grandfather Joseph Prince Oldham.

An ornate backed sofa is the setting for this portrait of Ellen Florence Coombs,.

nee Hooker, with baby Hilda Florence, born 1906.

Take a closer look at the beautiful detail on Ellen's blouse.

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Sitting on a throne-like seat, is Annie Jolly, a friend of my Great Aunt Jennie Danson. The Jolly and Danson families were at one time neighbours in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire and there were distant family connections too through marriage.

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This was
also in the large collection of photographs of my Great Aunt Jennie. It seemed to be the fashion to stand young children on chairs to get their portraits taken.

I
did some quick detective work and found the family in the 1911 census,
with Mary, 26 years old, husband Charles Alfred 24 and Nannie Ada 1
year old. She does not look too happy here in her best knitted coat
and bonnet, plus little boots. c. 1912.

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I could not let this prompt pass by, without showing this photographwhich has appeared before on my blog and is crucial to my family history. "Who
was that stern, rather Spanish looking woman sitting in the
imposing medieval style chair?" This was the question that started me on the family
history trail when I found this photograph in a shoebox collection at my
grandfather's house. The answer - my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe.
There was an apocryphal story that her dark looks had come from
sailors, who after the Armada were shipwrecked on the Fylde coast of
Lancashire.

By her side, is her granddaughter Annie Maria (my mother's cousin) who made her home with Maria
after the early death of her own mother. Annie was born 1905 and she
looks to be around 11-12 years old in the picture, so I estimate it was
was taken c.1917. Annie's father John Danson, died in 1917 in tragic circumstances at military camp, a few months after the death of his brother George Danson in the first photogrpah. No wonder that their mother Maria looks forbidding here.

And Finally:

Not a studio portrait, but here I am on my own little chair - a bit big for me as my feet don't touch the ground. The chair was passed down, with fresh covers, to my daughter and granddaughter - but I never thought at the time to take a photograph of them in it.

A pity!

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epia Saturdaygives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.

Click HERE to see what other bloggers have spotted in this week's prompt.

Wednesday, 2 August 2017

"Horns on Show" is my response to this week's prompt photograph, showing a guardsman sitting on the grass beside a horned goat - the regimental mascot.

I have no images of goats, but I have fond memories of holidays in the west of Scotland and seeing that icon of Scottish tourism (along with tartan, heather, bagpipes. and whisky) - "The "Hielan' Coo" - aka the Highland Cow. So take a look at these photogenic friendly natives, with their long horns and flowing coats, designed to withstand the worst of the Scottish weather.

"I'm Trying to be Friendly"

My husband meets Hamish and Dougal -

the "pets" at the hotel where we were staying near Oban.

"I'm Showing off my Horns!"

"I'm Hungry"

We were staying in a cottage at Fionnphort on the far west of the Isle of Mull, just across from Iona, and the highland cattle roamed free around the small village - one shop, one pub, one seafood cabin and the ferry office. Here one hungry cow decided to take a nibble from the garden of our self catering cottage.

"I've walked far enough, I'm taking a rest"

"I'm little and lonely"

This young cow stood motionless at the side of the road, very happy to pose for the visitors walking down to the ferry across to Iona.

If you don;t come across the real thing, look out for a shop sign.

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And finally:

Not a highland cow, but this image fits my theme so well, I had to show it. Here we are down in the South of Scotland with the Ram Statue on the High Street of Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway. It was presented to the town in 1875 by local businessman William Colvin, as a symbol of the town's links with sheep farming.

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Sepia Saturdaygives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.

Click HEREto see what other bloggers have spotted in this week's prompt.

Friday, 28 July 2017

How do you remain focused when researching and writing your family history?

I have to confess - I am a flitter, jumping from one aspect of my family history to another, easily distracted by another blog, or Facebook feed, or news of an interesting website, plus reading, replying and deleting e-mails, and other aspects of life getting in the way.

The result, I have three major topics on my "to do" list and they have been there far longer than I care to admit.

But as a former boss was fond of pronouncing - "It is not a question of 'no time' but how you manage your time".

So I am setting myself a personal blog prompt -

Friday will henceforth be Focus Friday,

when I will set out to work only on my three main targets.

Finish the final part of my Danson narrative about my mother's family from Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. I have written up to the end of the First World War, so surely it doesn't take much to write some chapters on my mother's siblings, especially as I have written profiles of them already on my blog? So this is top of my list.

My mother Kathleen Danson (right) with her sister Edith, c.1916

Finish the final part of my husband's family history narrative - this section is on Donaldson Sidelines with the surnames Hawkyard, Iley White, Hibbert and Moffet. They were mainly mariners or miners from South Shieds on Tyneside in the north east of England . Again I have already drafted most of this on the computer, but need to focus on the final family name.

Research in more depth and write up my father's Weston and Matthews family narrative. This is my " far more shadowy" ancestry, as I am finding it difficult to get beyond the basic names and dates information to discover some interesting stories. For reasons of geography, I had far less to do with this side of my family, have only a cousin as a contact and very few photographs to help me gain a picture of them.

So there we have it in black and white! Hopefully this will help me come to grips with my self imposed "brick wall" on action.

Watch this space!

UPDATE Friday 28th July: A good start to my new Focus Friday resolution. I looked back at my Danson narrative and I had more work to do on it than I thought. I updated the chapter on the search for my grandmother's background, recording the detailed information received after i posted queries on two websites. The brick wall however, remains standing!

UPDATE: Friday 4th August 2017: Slower progress this week, largely because I failed to check through my draft on what I had actually done months ago and repeated some sections - a lesson here! I copied and developed from my blog the post on my grandfather's house purchased in 1926, and then did likewise for the blog post on my Feisty Aunt Edith. However despite the stumbles, I feel I am making progress.

UPDATE: Friday August 11th: Spent a long time o.n a section on Aunt Edith's life in teaching, copying tributes to her form the school Facebook page (once I found it). Seqrched Lancashire Archives for informative but do not appear to hold school records for Burn Naze School, Thornton nor Sheaf Street School. Poulton. Posted a query on Genealogy Addicts re pupil-teacher training.

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

A multi-arched bridge is this week's photographic prompt from Sepia Saturday, so here I am taking you on a journey over bridges that span two centuries and cross rivers and moorland. Hear about the Marriage House at Coldstream used by runaway couples from England, the riots at Kelso Tollhouse, the heavy loss of life in building bridges, and the place where poet Robert Burns first set eyes on England. I finish by looking at bridges with links to my family history.

What struck me in writing this post is the length of time - i.e. 200 years - that many of these old bridges served their community, before replacement structures were built - progress sometimes seems very slow!

The Three Leaderfoot Bridges, near Melrose in the Scottish Borders Built 1776, 1865, and 1974

A charming tinted postcard c.1900 of the rail viaduct.

An
unusual view of the lower old Dryburgh road bridge built 1776-80. It
replaced a ferry crossing over the River Tweed, on the route
that is now the main A68 north to Edinburgh. Its narrow structure, more
used to horses and carts, remained in use for 200 years (conroleld by traffic lights) until a new
road bridge spanned the river in 1974.

In the background
is the famous Leaderfoot Viaduct built in 1865 and the major engineering feat of the Berwickshire Railway
Line from the east. The statistics are impressive - the
viaduct stands 126 feet (38 m) from the floor of the river valley, and
its 19 arches, each has a 43 feet span. It was named after the meeting of the Leader Water with the River Tweed, though Interestingly it was referred to in a newspaper article of
December 1864 as the Drygrange Viaduct.

A local paper of 3rd September 1863 gives a graphic account of an accident to a work on the viaduct.

The Berwickshire Railway was badly affected by
severe flooding in 1948 and services to the east of the county were particularly affected. The last train ran over the viaduct in 1965. It is now under the care of Historic Environment Scotland.

The Viaduct remains a popular spot for photographers today - here a view taken from the old road bridge which is now only open to walkers and cyclists.

A view of the three bridges, spanning two hundred years of history.

Craigsford Bridge, Earlston, built c. 1737.

Craigsford
Bridge over the Leader Water at Earlston was
built around 1737. Until the building of the new toll road (the later A68) at the end
of the century, it was the main route to Edinburgh. It was sometimes referred to as the Mill Brig, being close to the Simpson & Fairbairn Mill that produced textiles until its closure in 1969.

A modern view taken from
my daughter's cottage.

The Leader road bridge at Earlston carrying traffic on the main A68 route to Edinburgh. You can make out in the background the arches of the old Craigsford Bridge, and the tall chimney of Simpson & Fairbairn Mill.

Carolside Bridge, late 18th century.

The graceful late 18th century bridge spanning the Leader Water links the neighbouring estates of Carolside and Leadervale."The Statistical Account of Scotland" of 1834 gives us a beautiful description of Carolside

"Poised on a green plateau beside the River Leader and sheltered by
surrounding slopes of its own extensive woodlands, as a sweet and
secure asylum from the toils and troubles of the world'."

Two views of the bridge in more recent times:

A view of the Leader valley, looking down on the little Carolside Bridge.

With thanks to the Auld Earlston Group for the use of photographs in their collection

Coldstream Bridge, built 1767

The bridge over the River Tweed marks the boundary between Scotland and England and opened in 1767, built at a cost of £6000 - £725,000 in current values. (www.measuringworth.com). It was paid for by a government grant, local
subscriptions and loans from Edinburgh Banks, to be paid back from the
bridge tolls.

But Coldstream
Bridge Tollhouse at the north end of the bridge, was more than just the location for collecting taxes. For it was akin to Gretna Green towards the west as the location for a Scottish "Irregular
Marriage".This was in
the form of a verbal declaration by the couplegiving their consentbefore
witnesses and did not require a clergyman, but anyone who took on the role for
a fee. No notice, such as banns,was required, no parental consentand no residency requirement.Such marriages were valid in Scotland but
were increasingly frowned upon and became lessand less acceptable.

In
the meantime, however, many English couples in particular, eloped
to places just across the Border, to
escape the stricter English marriage laws and obtain a quick, easyand cheaper
marriage.

It was on the bridge that Scottish bard Robert Burns had his
first glimpse of England, as marked by a plaque. (Wikipedia)

The Rennie Bridge at Kelso - 1803.

Another
crossing of the River Tweed with the Rennie Bridge at Kelso. It was
built in 1800-3 to replace one washed away in
floods of 1797. Designed by John Rennie, it was an earlier and smaller
scale version of the Waterloo Bridge, which he designed for London. The
Toll House, where the payment had to be made, was the scene of a riot in
1854, when local people objected to continuing to pay the tolls
when the building costs had been long cleared. It still took three
years for tolls to be withdrawn. For nearly 200 years, this narrow bridge remained the only
bridge across the Tweed at Kelso until the building of a new one in
1998 to the east of the town. Ribblehead Viaduct, North Yorkshire, built 1870-1874.

Image from Picabay

A striking view of the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire on the scenic Carlisle to Settle railway line. It
took over a thousand navvies over four years (1870-1874) to build it.
On the wild windswept moors of the Ribble valley, they established
shanty towns for themselves and their families. Around 100 men were
killed during the construction, and illnesses were rife in the harsh living
conditions. The graveyard at nearby Chapel-le-Dale has around 200
burials of men, women and children who died during the time of the
viaduct's construction.

Bridges with FamilyHistory Links

My parents, John Weston and Kathleen Danson - taken in 1937 at Kirby Lonsdale, where they got engaged. This remained one of their favourite spots to visit.

Kirby
Lonsdale in Cumbria on the edge of the Lake District is a fascinating
small town with a mix of 18th-century buildings and stone cottages
huddled around quaint cobbled courtyards and narrow alleyways with names
such as Salt Pie Lane and Jingling Lane. The town is noted for the its
three span Devil's Bridge, first built across the River Lune c.1370. You catch a glimpse of it here.

These photographs comes from my father's album. During the war, Dad
served in the RAF Codes & Ciphers Branch and was seconded to General Bradley’s US 12th Army Group
HQ. He was
stationed in Luxembourg in winter 1944 prior to the Battle of the
Bulge. Dad had fond memories of the city and the people he met
there. The
Bridge, built between 1900 and 1903, became an unofficial national
symbol, representing Luxembourg's independence and was named after
Grand Duke Adolphe who reigned Luxembourg from 1890 until 1905.

My brother standing in front of the cast iron arched Ironbridge over the River Severn in Shropshire, where our father spent his childhood. It was the first ironbridge built In 1781 and often described as "the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution".
It is now a World Heritage Site.

Although Dad was born in Bilston, Wolverhampton, he moved to Broseley, across the river from Ironbridge, when he was five years old and he regarded it as his happy chidlhood home. He went to school there, sang in the choir from the age of seven and began his working life at a grocer's shop, delivering goods by pony and cart. Dad's father had a 35 minutes walk across the bridge
each way every day to get to his work at the Coalbrookdale Power House in the Severn valley.

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Sepia Saturdaygives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.

Thursday, 13 July 2017

This week's prompt photograph is an early one (1909) of a spectators watching an event with flags flying in the background. I have a great match for the crowds, the bunting, the hats - and even the date in images from Auld Earlston - my local heritage group in the Scottish Borders.

Flags are flying on Earlston High Street in 1908 for a visit by Prime Minister Asquith.

Crowds gathering to hear P.M. Asquith. with an elaborate decoration with flags in the foreground and you can just make out the marquee in the background.

Local newspapers give colourful accounts of the event. "The Jedburgh Advertiser" described the
plans for the visit. These included the erection of a tent, measuring 220 feet by
60 feet with seating accommodation for
about 4000 people - this when the population
of Earlston in the 1911 census was only 1677! How
many political meetings attract that kind of number today?

It proved to be a notable
occasion, disrupted by the late
arrival of reporters and M.Ps on a delayed Edinburgh train which took three
hours totraqvel the 30 miles to Earlston; crowds spilling out of from the crowded hot marquee, the intervention of a woman
suffragette, and noise from the "shunt, snort and whistles" of
a railway engine threatening to drown
out the speakers.

When Mr Asquith stood to speak, the newspaper reported "He got a warm greeting. Mary of the people rose to their feet and waved hats and handkerchiefs and cheered with great cordiality". However he had only said a few words when, at the remark "My
primary purpose in coming here this afternoon is to...., a woman startled her
neighbours by exclaiming "Give votes to women!". The interrupter was a young woman of graceful
figure and pleasant features. Stewards
made their way to the fair
suffragette and quickly bore the
woman out, calm and unresisting but with
her sailor hat somewhat awry".

I love that piece of journalism! The newspaper reporter was clearly very taken with the young woman, and found the incident far more interesting than Mr Asquith's speech which he
described as "Unimpassioned with no
striking phrases."

But what had prompted this political meeting to be held in a Berwickshire
village in the rural Scottish Borders? Mr Asquith had Border connections. His
second wife was socialite Margot
Tennant, daughter of the prominent Tennant family of the Glen, Innerleithen, whilst his
brother-in-law Mr H. J. Tennant was the
local Berwickshire Member of Parliament. .

No general election was looming.
For Mr Asquith had assumed office
only a few months before. But a turbulent political
situation faced him, with issues of House of Lords reform, home rule for Ireland, industrial strife, an
increasingly militant women suffragette movement and worsening international
relations with Germany, culminating in the First World War.

But on a brief
Saturday afternoon in October 1908 , Earlston was on the national stage politically.

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One of the many World War One embroidered cardssent back by my grandfather to his family at home. They ranged from the floral to the sentimental and, as here, to the patriotic. The Sottish Borders is known for its annual Common Riding events that take place in each town in June/July and are the focal point of
the local calendar. They involve
both a symbolic riding of the town's boundaries, made in the past to
safeguard burgh rights and also a commemoration of local history. In Hawick where I used to live, the riding celebrates the "callants", young
lads of Hawick, who in 1514, raided a body of English troops and
captured their flag - the "Banner Blue". This skirmish followed
the the ill-fated Battle of Flodden in 1513, when King James IV and
much of the "Flower of Scotland" were killed.

Here is the Cornet - the principal figure of Hawick Common Riding, carrying the Banner Blue. With thanks to Lesley Fraserfor allowing me to feature herphotograph.

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Flags attract me! So when I am on holiday, I always make a point of trying to capture an image of the country's flag,

Looking down from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Statue in Washington D.C.

Hotel de Ville in Paris

The Austrian Flag on a boat on Wolfgangasee, near Salzburg

A wall mural depicting the distinctive blue and white lozenges of the
Bavarian flag - a reminder of when Bavaria, ruled by the Wittelsbach
family, was a separate country in southern Germany.

The White Ensigns of the British Navy flying above Admiralty Arch in London

The blue and white bunting out for Earlston Civic Week, with the pipe band leading the fancy dress procession, July 2017

And how up to date can you get with an image? This morning my daughter, on holiday in London, e-mailed me a photograph of the city preparing to welcome a state visit by the Spanish King and Queen - with the national flags flying on the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace.

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Sepia Saturdaygives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.

Click HEREto see what other bloggers have picked out from this week's prompt photograph above

About Me

I have been interested in family history for years. It all began when I was allowed as a child to look through the old family photographs and memorabilia kept in a shoebox in the cupboard at my grandfather's house. That treat started me on a fascinating ancestral trail.